Police search a boat on which some 100 migrants were rescued in Sicily the same day the bodies of six others were found.
Police search a boat on which some 100 migrants were rescued in Sicily the same day the bodies of six others were found.
Dario Azzaro/AFP/Getty Images

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In all, 20 people jump into the water off the coast of Sicily

The boat was carrying people from areas of unrest in the Middle East

CNN  — 

Six migrants drowned Saturday in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to swim to shore in Italy, police said.

In all, 20 people had jumped into the water off the coast of Sicily from a boat carrying 98 migrants, spokesman Giovanni Mazziano said.

He believes that those who drowned did not know how to swim.

The boat was carrying people from areas of unrest in the Middle East, among them Palestinians, Syrians and Egyptians.